Storm Team 4; These Dry Times Are Nothing Compared with 1871

Summary

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This year continues to be rather dry, with six of the first nine months of the year receiving below-average precipitation in Milwaukee. October is the beginning of the drier season in southeast Wisconsin, where average monthly precipitation drops below 3 inches. Air masses loaded with moisture from the south are less frequent, and begin to originate in drier areas such as Canada or somewhere in the western sections of the United States. While we are dry this year, we aren't close to the tinderbox conditions of October 1871.

That year was much drier than 2005, although exact weather records are hard to come by since many were destroyed on the night of Oct. 8, 1871. Two famous fires caused by the drought of that year burned on the same evening, the Great Peshtigo and Great Chicago fires. There are many theories on how both fires started, and we may never know the actual reason or ignition. We do know that 1871 was a very dry year for most of the Midwest, and buildings both in Chicago and Peshtigo were made mainly out of wood.

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Storm Team 4; These Dry Times Are Nothing Compared with 1871

The Peshtigo Fire in northeast Wisconsin...

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